The state of rugby in Nova Scotia high schools remains in limbo on Monday as a pair of memos from the province’s athletic federation insists that the sport will no longer be offered in schools, while the province’s education minister says the sport will go ahead as planned.
The new memo, obtained by Global News and dated May 5, says that Education Minister Zach Churchill’s call to reinstate the sport on Friday “has not resolved the issue.”
“Any school playing rugby, like any other non-NSSAF sport, is at the discretion of the principal,” writes Stephen Gallant, executive director of the Nova Scotia School Athletic Federation (NSSAF), in the memo.
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A second memo, also dated May 5 and distributed to all of the province’s principals, disputes the actions taken by the minister.
That memo, penned by Stephen MacNeil, chair of the board of governors for the NSSAF, says the federation’s decision was based on data from their School Insurance Program (SIP), a discussion of the limitations of the school season due to weather and field conditions and the lack of a developmental system for rugby.
“It was a difficult decision, but for student safety, the unanimous decision to remove rugby was made,” the memo reads.
The memo says that MacNeil met with Cathy Montreuil, deputy minister of education, on March 29 to discuss any issues that could potentially come from the decision.
READ MORE: Cancelling rugby in N.S. could discourage reporting of injuries elsewhere
MacNeil shared his findings with Montreuil and explained the NSSAF’s reasoning.
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“She offered no objections and engaged in a discussion about sports that may replace rugby on the schedule,” the memo reads.
The memo from the NSSAF continues by slamming Churchill’s decision, saying the NSSAF was extremely disappointed that the minister said the federation had breached the agreement.
“Let me be very clear — the NSSAF board is not against the sport of rugby. Our board is simply not confident that a safe environment exists when rugby is being introduced to young men and women at the high school level,” MacNeil writes.
Department tells schools that rugby will go ahead
The Department of Education says that Churchill was unavailable for an interview on Monday but provided a statement on his behalf.
In the statement, Churchill says that the department was “not aware of the NSSAF’s plan to announce the cancellation of the rugby season.”
“The Regional Education Directors and the (Conseil Scolaire Acadien Provincial) Superintendent are today informing their principals that high school rugby will continue,” said Churchill.
The education minister concludes by saying that his department has a meeting with the NSSAF on Tuesday to “discuss a path forward in the best interest of our students.”
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Robert Strang has been one of those loudly calling for the NSSAF to reverse their decision on social media.
The chief medical officer of health for Nova Scotia has played and refereed rugby for 22 years. He said that he spoke with Churchill over the phone on Monday to give him his thoughts.
“Risk is inherent in any type of physical activity, any type of sport carries some risk. So I think it’s important we focus on how do you accept some risk,” he said.
He said the figures released by SIP are not necessarily indicative of rugby being more dangerous. Some sports have unique requirements around reporting injuries while some sports have a higher number of participants.
“There’s lots of things that you have to look to ensure that ultimately when you make a comparison between one sport and another, you’re making a fair comparison,” Strang said.
“So I think there are some fundamental flaws in the analysis of the numbers that were made.”
Rugby organizations from across Canada have continued to campaign for the sport to be reinstated.
On Monday, a joint statement from Rugby Nova Scotia, Rugby Canada and World Rugby said the organizations are “working with the government of Nova Scotia on next steps towards expedient reinstatement.”
A letter sent to the NSSAF from Rugby Nova Scotia repudiates the decision by the NSSAF even more.
The letter is signed by Geno Carew, president of Rugby Nova Scotia; Jack Hanratty, technical director for Rugby Nova Scotia and Dr. John Gillis, an ER doctor and former chief medical officer of Rugby Canada.
The trio writes that they’re concerned they were not given the opportunity to discuss the matter before the federation decided to end rugby in the province’s high schools.
“The data presented to you from SIP are inconsistent with what we see in the field,” they write.
READ MORE: N.S. students push back as athletic federation cancels high school rugby
Carew says that many students, parents and educators are now looking for clarity on what happens next.
“It’s not a great situation for anyone that’s involved. Clarity would have been great. The email I saw came out around 11 o’clock last night, or between 9 and 11 anyway. It was late, late, late in the evening on Sunday so it kind of left everything up in question,” he said.
Ashley Giddens, an assistant rugby coach at the Cobequid Educational Centre said the past few days have felt like taking a step backwards.
“Rugby has come so far in the last few years and having it be an Olympic sport and gaining all of that interest and all of that support from all around the world,” Giddens said.
“I just feel like we’re taking so many steps backwards and it’s going to have real implications on the future of rugby in Nova Scotia.”
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